


Portrait of the Team as a Bunch of Rabble-Rousers

by goodouthere



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Team as Family, brief descriptions of violence, optional sad ending, the bar fight that brings the team together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-03-31 01:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13964247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodouthere/pseuds/goodouthere
Summary: Before the bar fight, they were seven people - not quite friends, but not quite not friends - signed up for a scientific mission.After the bar fight, they were something else.





	1. Davenport Goes With the Flow, Mostly

“I told you, I totally killed it on this planet already,” Lup said, watching the press file out of the room and reclining in her folding chair, tilting it back on two legs. “I mean, what’s left to do?”

Davenport wrinkled his nose. He had plenty of suggestions for what was left to do - there was so much still to find out on their home planet, he was sure, and so much fun a group of people could have with twelve hours ahead of them - but he wasn't certain if it would be appropriate for a captain to suggest them. This was the first interstellar voyage he'd ever led. It was the first interstellar voyage anyone had ever led, to his knowledge, and what waited beyond the purple sky was surely a serious matter for serious leaders.

"What's going on with you, Cap'n'port?" Magnus asked, leaning down to examine Davenport.

"Looks like he's been sucking on a lemon," Taako commented, holding up a fist for Lup to bump, which she did, without even looking, in a practiced motion.

Davenport shook his head. "There's plenty to do before we ship out," he said. "You can't have done  _everything_."

"Uh, pretty sure I have, homie," Lup retorted. "Lived on the streets."

"Lived on the road," Taako added.

"Lived with our aunt."

"Learned how to cook."

"Evocation."

"Transmutation."

"Some petty theft."

"Sweet flips."

"And now space!" Lup finished. "It's-"

"You know what I haven't done?" Magnus said, cutting her off. "Oh, sorry, Lup, didn't mean to cut you off. But I've never been to, like, a biker bar. I mean, a super rough joint."

"For real?" Barry asked. "But you're so - y'know, burly."

"I know! That's why I want to go to one! I mean, I'm not gonna pick a fight or anything, but maybe there will be a fight going on when I get there and I can jump in and look like a total badass."

Merle grinned. "This sounds like a great idea!" he said. "I don't see any possible way this could go wrong."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Lucretia asked. Everyone turned to her - these were the first words she'd spoken since the press conference ended, and while they'd all become accustomed to her preference for keeping to herself, it was out of character for her to break her silence by asking for clarification. On anything. Lucretia was uncommonly perceptive.

"No, no," Merle said. "I genuinely don't see any possible way this could go wrong."

Lucretia smiled to herself and wrote something in one of her journals.

As the team folded up their folding chairs, more for something to do with their hands than because the IPRE really needed them to pick up the remains of the press conference, they spoke enthusiastically about the biker bar plan. Did anyone know any tough bars? Do biker bars, like, require memberships or proof that you own a bike? If a few of them used magic to disguise themselves as bikers, could they get everyone else in without arousing suspicion? Was Magnus's sheer physical prowess enough? Should they find Barry a tougher outfit? Should Lucretia bring her journals? How drunk is it okay to get pre-space mission?

Davenport couldn't help but smile as they listened. The way they talked sounded like a magician's patter, like they already knew exactly what the results of this night would be and they were wrapping themselves in details to distract their audience of rubes. Davenport figured that made him one of the rubes, because he was starting to feel very enthusiastic about this plan. 

Which was weird. It was an objectively terrible plan. Magnus outright proposed it as a way for him to get into a scuffle with some rough boys. Merle thought it was a good idea, which was almost never a good sign. Lucretia, who Davenport had spent the full duration of his preparations counting on to be level-headed, was on board.

_We are going to get up to some serious shit on this mission_ , he thought,  _aren't we?_

Davenport, though he didn't say it aloud - serious captain, serious space mission - didn't mind that thought one bit.

* * *

 A sign illuminated by weak, flickering magic announced the entrance to the bar. It was a literal hole in the wall - there had been a door there, years ago, but even the frame was broken beyond recognition.  They found it as the suns began to set, one just before the other, as they did every other night. The lavender of the sky turned blazing bubble-gum pink near the horizon, and a few tenebrous clouds drifted across the dusk, settling just overhead.

"Wonder if it'll storm tomorrow," Barry commented, looking up at the sky. "Takeoff will be a little bumpy in the rain."

Lup elbowed him. "You could take some barometric readings or something and figure it out." As he looked at her, apparently considering the idea like he was about to pull out a barometer, she rolled her eyes and grinned. "I'm kidding, you dork."

"Oh yeah. Right, yeah."

"So do we just go in?" Lucretia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Davenport rubbed the back of his neck and felt himself scrunching up his nose again before he stopped himself. "I suppose so, but-"

With a broad smile like he couldn't wait another second, Magnus shouldered his teammates aside with as much politeness as he could muster and headed through the hole in the wall into the bar without a second thought. The rest of the crew looked to Davenport. He shrugged, unable to stop himself from grinning -  _this is too fun_ \- and followed Magnus into the bar.

It was undoubtedly a seedy kind of place. All the better, Davenport figured, since they'd just done a press conference and he wasn't looking for their final act before shipping out to be getting plastered all over the papers for getting into a bar fight. Huge men and women - even the halflings and gnomes among the bunch seemed gigantic, somehow - slammed mugs of strong-looking drink onto the scratched bartop and grumbled to each other, sounding pissed off no matter what it was they were actually saying. In the corner furthest from the door were nestled two pool tables. One had its green felt torn up, but the other seemed to be in good working order. Tucked away in a nook by the bar, Davenport saw a busted Skee-Ball machine.

"Skee-Ball? Damn, this is a cool bar," Barry said. 

Beside him, the twins were looking at each other with such fervent excitement that it made Davenport a little nervous.

"They've got pool," Taako said, blasé in a way that didn't match his expression.

Lup was more blatant. "We're gonna go hustle some idiots. Catch up with you dudes later."

"Hustle some..." But the twins were already halfway to the pool table. Davenport wandered over toward the end of the bar, to a stool as close to the door as he could manage, and clambered up onto it. He couldn't tell if his crew was taking him seriously, if this was somehow going to turn into a public relations nightmare for the IPRE, or even if the alcohol in this bar was safe to drink. And he couldn't just take some barometric readings or something to figure it out.

Lucretia walked up to him, two notebooks tucked under her arm, a pen stuck behind each of her ears. "Davenport," she said.

He spun around on his stool. "Yeah?"

"We respect you," she said. "Have some fun."

Davenport took another look around the bar. Magnus was sitting at a small round table and challenging a rugged-looking dragonborn to arm-wrestle. Merle leaned on the broken Skee-Ball machine, drinking and seemingly preaching to a small crowd of interested bikers. Lup and Taako leaned on their pool cues, watching a young couple shoot nine-ball with satisfied smiles like the cats that ate the canary. Barry was sitting cross-legged on the torn-up pool table, watching the nine-ball action unfold and glancing awkwardly away from the twins whenever one of them turned to look at him.

When he turned to face Lucretia again, she was gone, sitting next to Merle's impromptu Skee-Ball sermon and dutifully chronicling the evening, a notebook on either side of her, a pen in each hand, scribbling in what Davenport knew was tiny, neat, loopy handwriting that looked identical no matter which hand produced it.

"Hey, Cap'n'port!" Magnus yelled across the bar. "Come watch me beat everyone's butts at arm-wrestling!"

Davenport chuckled. "I'll be over in a second, Magnus." He watched Magnus slam a dwarf's arm to the table.  _If he's not careful, he'll tear someone's arm clean off_ , Davenport thought, taking a swig of alcohol, no longer caring as much whether it was safe to drink.

_Tomorrow, I'll be a serious captain on a serious space mission commanding my serious crew. But tonight, they still respect me._

_Might as well have some fun, right?_

 


	2. Taako Hustles Some Idiots

Taako wasn't paying the team a lot of attention.

He didn't make a habit of ignoring his surroundings - he certainly couldn't have afforded to do that in his previous life as a road cook - but he figured he had the general vibe of the room steady enough to think about other things. Specifically, to think about Davenport's face and why he was screwing it up like he'd been sucking on a lemon.

"What's going on with you, Cap'n'port?" Magnus asked.

"Looks like he's been sucking on a lemon," Taako said, feeling the joke land and receiving a fist-bump from Lup.

Lup was leaning her folding chair back on two legs, and Taako marveled at his sister's balance. She had always been good at that. A lot of their shared life had been a balancing act. Be funny but not  _too_ funny - your crew will keep you around but not feel threatened. Be clever but not  _too_ clever - no one likes a smart-ass. Be inseparable but not  _too_ inseparable - even if you only trust one other person in the world, a 24/7 sibling act still kind of weirds people out.

Taako knew he had the tendency to go in the direction of  _too_ much, but Lup got balance. Usually. Sometimes, of course, she just wanted to set some shit on fire, and who was Taako to begrudge her the simple pleasures? Besides, he also loved setting shit on fire.

"You know what I haven't done?" Magnus said, cutting off whatever Lup was saying. Taako hadn't been processing Lup's words, but he knew when they stopped. "Oh, sorry, Lup, didn't mean to cut you off. But I've never been to, like, a biker bar. I mean, a super rough joint."

Taako felt a slow grin spread across his face. This sounded to him like a perfect way to spend his last night before shipping out. After all, two of his many, many talents were beating suckers at nine-ball and getting drinks out of handsome strangers, and with any luck, this super rough joint would give him access to at least one, if not both, of the opportunities he needed to show off those talents. He was going to get drunk. He was going to show off.

He detected one problem with the plan.

"Hold up, hombres," Taako said. "If he's coming with us, shouldn't we get Barry a tougher outfit?"

* * *

 

He wasn't particularly impressed with the hole they had to pass through to get inside the actual bar. It betrayed a serious lack of class for a place to refuse to bother to replace its doorframe, much less the actual door. Neither did he find much to commend in the weak-ass conjuration magic just barely keeping the sign for the bar lit. 

_God, whose ten-year-old kid brother cast that Light spell?_ Taako wondered, rhetorically, though he knew the answer was probably some tough-as-nails biker who could kick his ass for thinking it. 

Did he wear his favorite skirt for _this_?

He reversed his position almost as soon as they got inside. There, in the far corner of the bar, illuminated by a broken lamp and a few hovering blobs of clumsy, flickering Light, stood a pair of twin pool tables. One with the felt ripped up. One with the balls already laid out in a neat diamond, pockmarked pool cues leaning up against the wall. Taako already knew what Lup's expression would be when he looked at her, which is why his face looked exactly the same.

She was grinning at him with a light in her eyes.

"They've got pool," Taako announced to nobody.

Lup nodded, still smiling, before addressing the rest of Team Crazy Space Mission (not an official name, but a cool name). "We're gonna go hustle some idiots. Catch up with you dudes later," she said, practically sprinting towards the tables.

The twins chalked up their pool cues, small-talking as they waited for some unsuspecting idiots to hustle, keeping their eyes on the room even as they carried on a conversation.

Taako spotted what looked like a pair of half-elves, both clad in clothes so ripped they could have just come from a fight with an owlbear, wandering in their direction. He smiled at Lup and jerked his chin in their direction. She nodded.

"'Scuse me," he said, giving them his most winning smile and his full attention. "Would you two happen to be interested in a little nine-ball?"

The man looked at the woman, who shrugged and nodded. "Sure," she said, in a voice half an octave deeper than Taako would have expected. "I'm a wagering girl. What's your bet? I've got five gold pieces I'm willing to lay on the line."

"Actually, we're going to space tomorrow, so money isn't exactly on the top ten list of things we need," Taako said. "How about we figure it out once you lose?"

"You tryna psych us out with smack talk?" the man asked, looming despite his willowy physique. Taako was careful to make his face impassive. Then, the man broke into a grin. "Because it'll work. Gimme a pool cue, dude. Let's play. Best of five, and we'll even give you the break."

Taako shrugged, trying hard not to smile. "Whatever you say, my man."

When Taako turned to retrieve two cues and tossed them to the pair, he noticed Barry was sitting cross-legged (like an absolute fucking nerd) on the other table, the one with all its felt ripped up. He was engaged in intent conversation with Lup about something, and Taako paused a second before interrupting.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of space pirates for us to fight," Lup said.

"You know that's not what I meant, Lup," Barry retorted, a bigger smile in his voice than on his face. "I just mean... well, who knows what there will be?" He looked over Lup's shoulder, then, at Taako. "I think it's time for you to hustle some idiots," Barry said.

"Hey!" the woman exclaimed. "Your nerd friend smack-talks too?"

"Zing!" Lup said, elbowing Barry. "She doesn't even know you and she knows you're a nerd!"

Taako shot the break, and after that he and Lup took turns with each other and the pair of clothing-torn half-elves. Taako and Lup won the first round. The unsuspecting idiots won the second. Taako and Lup won the third. In the middle of the fourth round, there was a roar and a pounding noise from across the bar. Taako looked up from a shot - which he was lining up fucking  _perfectly_ , by the way - to see a tangled mess of bikers somehow already knee-deep in a fight. He raised his eyebrows.

"Yikes," he said.

"Shit, do you think the team is getting into it?" Lup asked, looking at least some modicum of worried. 

There came a shout of "hah!" that was unmistakably Magnus's voice.

"Hard to say," Taako deadpanned. "I'm not dealing with that shit."

"No kidding," Lup said. She paused for a moment. Taako watched her glance at Barry. "I'm just gonna go make sure nobody's getting killed before we blast the fuck off. Be right back."

"You forfeiting the game?" the man asked.

"Hell no, homie," Lup said. "Taako's gonna play for us both. Besides, I'll only be a second."

She tossed her pool cue at Taako, who caught it with his free hand and immediately spun to face Barry, eyebrows still raised. Barry flinched, like he thought Taako was going to throw the cue at him next.

"Well?" Taako said.

Barry nodded, hopped off the table, and followed Lup into the edges of the fray. Taako nodded back, though Barry was facing away from him and he didn't quite know why he was doing it.  _Know thyself_ wasn't exactly Taako's favorite maxim.

"So," he said to the pair of half-elves whose asses he was absolutely murdering at nine-ball, "you two come here often?"

"Every other night," said the woman, shooting far to the right of where she intended. "Can't say the same for you."

"Maybe we're on opposite schedules," the man said.

"No, actually, my friend suggested this place," Taako said, not bothering to analyze the fact that he'd called Magnus a friend instead of a teammate just now.  _Know thyself_. "Like I said, we're literally going to space tomorrow, so we figured we might as well get wild on our last night."

"You're actually going to space?" the man asked. "Jeez, I thought that was a joke."

"Homie, my jokes are hilarious. You'll know when I'm joking."

He beat them in round four by a decent margin. They offered to hang around until Lup and Barry got back, play the fifth round just for kicks even though the twins had already gotten their best three out of five. Taako shrugged and accepted their offer.

The crowd ejected Lup not two minutes later. She looked ruffled but none the worse for wear, and she was glowing with exhilaration. Barry was discharged right behind her, looking much the worse for wear and glowing with plain old sweat.

"Gods," Lup said. "These assholes know how to throw down. I threw a bottle."

"I tried to stop her from throwing the bottle," Barry said, a little out of breath.

Taako smirked. "Obviously you didn't try very hard. Lulu, did you actually fight someone?"

"I'm not an idiot." She grabbed her cue from where it was leaning against the wall. "Just made sure everyone was cool, and maybe yelled and threw a bottle. Y'know. Cool shit."

Taako held up a hand. Lup smacked it.

They beat the pair of half-elves in the fifth round too. They accepted defeat, if not graciously, at least with a minimal amount of cursing and stomping. They didn't throw anything - not that Taako was expecting them to, but hey, if Lup was chucking bottles, who knows what these two might have up their torn sleeves?

"You sure you don't want those gold pieces?" the woman asked.

Lup shook her head. "Told you already, we're not going to be spending your money in space, hombres. Keep your money."

Suddenly, a thought struck Taako, one of the funniest thoughts he'd had all night. There were only so many things to win off a couple of strangers in the roughest bar in town, and when you got rid of the money and the ripped shirts, pants, and cloaks, that knocked off most of your options. Through his laughter, he whispered his idea to Lup, who started cackling right along with him. Barry and the half-elves looked equally perplexed.

"We want-" Lup broke off into laughter.

"So, here's the thing," Taako said. "Um, your shoes."

"What are you going to do with their shoes?" Barry asked, incredulous. The twins were still wracked with giggles.

"I dunno," Lup managed. "They're cool shoes!"

"We gotta punish them somehow," Taako added. "They lost, they gotta walk around barefoot."

To their credit, the half-elves looked at each other and, through a silent understanding, started unlacing and unbuckling their shoes. They hopped around on single feet, steadying themselves on each other and on the table, as the twins continued laughing hysterically. Barry started chuckling, too.  _What are we gonna do with their shoes?_ Taako wondered, not like it mattered. It was his last night on this planet, baby, and damned if he didn't just win a pair of shoes.

"Now, you're gonna wanna be careful with these," the man said, handing his shoes to Taako as the woman handed hers to Lup. "Enchanted, y'know. Your feet will never be cold or wet in 'em, and your steps have a little extra thud. Pretty intimidating."

"Sweet," Taako said, measuring them up against his own feet. "You guys were good sports. Have a good night, now."

The half-elves trudged into the night in stocking feet, avoiding the still-raging fight that was taking up more than half the bar at that point, advancing across the room like a gathering storm. Taako watched it with mild interest, leaning against Barry's pool table. He had absolutely no desire to get involved and didn't exactly think much of anyone fucking around with bikers, but he knew Magnus and Merle had to be somewhere in the fray, as did Davenport and - gods, was even Lucretia involved?

"How much do you guys wanna bet Lucretia is writing down every detail of this fight?" Barry asked, just to Taako's right and slightly behind him.

"No bet. She definitely is," Lup replied, further to Taako's right.

Taako looked down at the pair of enchanted shoes in his hand. "You think we could go double or nothing with the team on some more shoes?"

Lup and Barry broke into laughter again, and slowly, Taako joined them.

It was one thing to hustle pool with his sister, something he was used to doing since the time they were grown-up-looking enough to sneak into bars. It was another thing to hustle pool with his sister and some bedenimed science nerd Taako didn't know too well. It wasn't a bad thing, though. It was just a thing.

"Hey," Barry said, addressing Lup. "You ever get in a bar fight before tonight?"

"Hell no," she said.

Taako caught his drift right away. "So  _now_ you've done everything there is to do."

Lup grinned, a self-satisfied grin, and hopped up onto the pool table next to Barry. She watched the roiling fight, advancing and retreating across the bar. Taako followed her gaze. Was that Merle standing on the bartop? Was that Magnus getting punched in the eye? Everybody blended together as a single mass of flashing fists and wide eyes. 

"Now we've done everything," Lup agreed. "And you know what?"

Taako didn't wait for her to answer her own question. "We fuckin' killed it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate kudos and comments, y'all! Thanks for reading this thing!


	3. Barry Talks Pirates

As per usual.

Barry didn't love things that proceeded as per usual. Proceeding as per usual meant that there were no questions to be answered, no scientific theories to be explored, and no variety. That said, he also didn't love surprises. Barry tended to be slow to come to grips with his own feelings about any given situation. It wasn't that he was a creature of habit, but the only times he was quick to act were the times he knew what he was doing (or thought he did).

So, as per usual, Barry was torn between excitement and curiosity about having a new experience and nerves about just what the hell that experience would entail.

He posed most of the questions about the biker bar, because, come  _on_ , you guys, we can't just fuckin' walk in there and expect to be taken seriously!

"Do they require memberships or somethin' - y'know, proof that you own a motorcycle? Do any of you own a motorcycle?" 

Lup shrugged. "I've ridden one before. Stole it, actually."

Magnus whistled. "You guys really have done everything."

"I doubt they require a membership," Davenport reassured him. "No more theft, though, please. If they turn us away for not owning motorcycles, Lup, you are not allowed to steal one to get us into the bar. No crime at all tonight."

"What about me?" Taako asked.

"No crime for you either. No crime for anybody."

The team made exaggerated sounds of disappointment; Barry chuckled. It was going to be a very weird night, for sure. It wasn't like he even knew these people outside of the IPRE, and most of what they talked about anyway was the mission itself. Barry, especially, tended to get wrapped up in the scientific details, and if he knew any fun facts about these people, he sure as hell couldn't remember what they were. As a team-building activity, trying to get into a fight at the roughest bar in town wasn't high on Barry's list. But it was a new experience, a place he'd never been before. A little frontier before conquering the biggest frontier of all, that between the planes. 

Because of his curiosity or in spite of his nerves, Barry had a good feeling about this night.

* * *

Barry did not have a good feeling about this night.

His nerves were definitely getting the better of him now. The entrance to the bar was, for lack of a more eloquent description, a big, dark hole. Barry had never done well with dark anything, much less huge, intimidating dark holes that led into rough bars. To distract himself from the entrance to the bar, he looked up at the sky. It had been a clear day, and the sunset was gorgeous, as per usual, but a few dark, lumpy clouds were starting to drift into view, seemingly sticking in the sky overhead as the winds shifted.

"Wonder if it'll storm tomorrow," he mused aloud. "Takeoff will be a little bumpy in the rain."

Lup elbowed him, made a joke about him being a dork. Barry felt his face flush all the way to his ears. He mumbled something back, ostensibly a retort, that was lost to Magnus shoving his way - not rude, somehow, as if there were a chivalrous way to shove - through first the team and second the big, dark hole that separated the as-per-usual of the empty street from the surprise of the bar itself.

The interior was about as he expected. Barry tried to catalogue the place ( _row of twelve bar stools, three small round tables with two chairs each, a Skee-Ball machine, two pool tables, what wood is the bar made out of?_ ) before he remembered that he'd probably never come up with a better mental account of the place than Lucretia was already scribbling down in her journals, one pen per journal per hand.

He made an awkward circuit of the room. He figured he would play some Skee-Ball - something he fuckin' rocked at - but closer inspection revealed that the machine was busted in innumerable ways. Broken lightbulbs' filaments popped with occasional sparks. Barry steered clear of the Skee-Ball machine.

His next best option became the twins, who had staked out the pool tables and were waiting for some unsuspecting rubes to decide they could take on Taako and Lup. As he approached their corner, he watched them share a nod, both looking past him to a pair of people in ripped clothing. Taako spoke to them. Barry, unnoticed, climbed up onto the pool table with the ripped felt and sat, criss-cross applesauce, waiting for what he figured would be a satisfyingly crushing victory for the twins to unfold.

"Hey," Lup said, hopping up next to him and swinging her feet off the edge of the pool table. "So what do you think we're gonna find in the other planes, anyway, huh? Don't give me your press-conference answer. I wanna hear about the cool stuff."

"I mean, I don't know what the cool stuff is, Lup," he replied. "No one does. That's what makes it the cool stuff! What if there's matter that's just... not like our matter? I can't even fathom what form it would take, that's how cool it'll be."

Lup nodded. "Yeah, super cool - I mean that, it's super cool - but aside from the science junk. Aren't you secretly hoping, a little bit, that there'll be something objectively  _awesome_ waiting for us in another plane?"

"What, like... like space pirates or something?"

Lup bounced her whole body at once, shaking the pool table, and clapped her hands together. "Yeah, exactly, my dude! That's what I'm talkin' about! I want some fuckin' space pirates."

"Okay, well now that we're talking about it, I kinda do too." Barry pictured peg legs made of unknown metals, glowing eye sockets barely hidden by eyepatches.

"Betcha their parrots will have two heads," Lup said.

Barry grinned. "Betcha they don't have you walk the plank, they have you open the airlock."

"Betcha all their shortswords are cursed."

"Betcha they bury their treasure in the gaps between the planes."

"Ooh, that's a good one. What, neutron star 3027-X marks the spot?"

Barry chuckled and pushed his glasses, starting to slip, back up his nose. "Yeah, exactly. Damn, Lup, now I want to meet these guys! You think they'll tell us how to get to neutron star 3027-X?"

"Only if we defeat their captain in single combat," Lup said, affixing Barry with a serious stare before bursting into giggles.

"I mean, we might meet them, for all we know," Barry murmured, starting to get wrapped up in his thoughts, then. "Anything, and it's unfathomable how  _anything_ that anything is, could be out there. Just hope it's something scientifically interesting. And cool."

"Don't worry," Lup said. "I'm sure there will be plenty of space pirates for us to fight."

Barry grinned. "You know that's not what I meant, Lup. I just mean... well, who knows what there will be?"

He looked past Lup for a moment, focusing instead on Taako, who was watching them like jellyfish in a tank. Not in a cruel way, and not in a way that made Barry uncomfortable, but in a way Barry recognized because he did it himself all the time. It was how Barry watched everything. Intent scientific curiosity.

Barry nudged Lup. "I think it's time for you to hustle some idiots."

As promised, the twins hustled some idiots. Barry watched them play with what he imagined was an expression of intent scientific curiosity. He didn't envy the twins, precisely, because he knew something of the shit they'd had to go through growing up, but their almost inhuman self-assurance appealed to him in a way he couldn't really quantify. What was it like to move through life knowing you had it on lock? Knowing you could say, to a crowd of reporters, that you killed it on this planet already? Knowing that you could drop a microphone, definitely a risk to the delicate audio equipment, and not give a damn. And knowing that, even if you did give a damn, no one else on this planet or any other would have any idea because you hid it so well?

Barry snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a loud thud and a roar from across the bar. He looked up just in time to see the tail end of the beginning of a fight, as more people piled in.  _Magnus must be happy_ , he thought.

As if reading his thoughts, Magnus whooped from somewhere within the fray.

_Looks pretty rough. Wonder if our team is getting their asses beat. That wouldn't be good, huh? Need everybody in fighting shape for the space pirates._

His consternation must have shown on his face, because Lup made split-second eye contact with him before tossing her pool cue at Taako. "I'm just gonna go make sure nobody's getting killed before we blast the fuck off. Be right back."

As Taako caught the stick, he turned on his heel to face Barry, who felt himself flinch. Taako was still looking at him curiously.

"Well?" he said.

Barry wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he could wager a guess. He nodded, unfolded himself off the table, and followed Lup into the fight.

He couldn't find her, of course. The fight was a tangled mass of huge, angry people, and Barry was not keen to get involved. He skirted the edge of it until he made it to the bar. Only one stool was occupied. Davenport occupied the stool, sipping nonchalantly at a mug of something alcoholic.

"Yikes," Barry said, unsure what else to say.

Davenport shrugged. "I'm trying not to get too uptight about it. Besides, Magnus did explicitly say he wanted to get into a fight tonight. Maybe it's good for the crew to let off a little steam before we all get into the Starblaster together."

Barry nodded. Several feet down from them, Merle clambered up on the bar top and held up his hands, though over the din, Barry couldn't hear what he was saying. A bottle came flying out of nowhere, nicking Merle in the head. Barry was suddenly torn between the instincts to help Merle, to find Lup, and to sprint into the night as fast as his denim-covered legs could carry him.

Merle seemed fine, and Barry wasn't totally sure of the way back to IPRE headquarters, so he chose the second option.

He found her at the edge of the fight, hair wild around her face, looking as exhilarated as he felt exhausted. Shoving and ducking his way through the sea of fighting bikers was the hardest exercise he'd had all day, and he wiped his forehead, hoping he didn't look too... too whatever. Lup reared her arm back, and Barry realized it contained a bottle like the one that had hit Merle. He tried to grab her arm, but Lup was a force. Couldn't be stopped. As soon as she threw it, she whooped, looked at him with shining eyes, and slipped out of the fray.

Barry made it out a few seconds later, just as Lup was extolling these bikers for knowing how to throw down.

"I tried to stop her from throwing the bottle," Barry said, looking from Taako to the other pool players for something, he wasn't sure what. Support, maybe? Someone else to acknowledge that, gods, Lup was a fucking force to be reckoned with? For Taako to quit fuckin'  _staring_ at him?

Barry didn't even know at this point.

If you had asked him, he wouldn't have said he was worried, but he still would have been able to pinpoint the exact moment his worries melted away.

"So, here's the thing," Taako said. "Um, your shoes."

Barry couldn't help himself. The sheer absurdity of the situation twirled in his gut and came out his mouth as laughter. It made a weird sort of sense - they wouldn't need money or anything else that had value on this planet, because at this time tomorrow, they'd be far, far away from this planet. But... their shoes! What were the twins going to do with their shoes? Barry couldn't begin to fathom.

_One of the mysteries of the other planes,_ Barry thought to himself, chuckling in an off-key three-part harmony with Taako and Lup.  _Will there be new forms of matter? Energy? Animals? Plants? Space pirates? And will we ever find a use for these poor people's shoes?_

When he repeated this thought to Taako and Lup later, on the walk back to the IPRE, they broke into laughter again. It was dark out, and the pools of light from the street lamps weren't nearly enough to break up the ink of the night air and the gathering stormclouds overhead. Somehow, Barry didn't mind. He watched his feet as they passed from one pool of light to the next, in step with the twins, both of whom were wearing one pair of shoes and carrying another.

"Better get some good sleep tonight," Barry said.

"Tomorrow," Lup finished, "we fight space pirates."

Barry looked over at Taako then. The scientific curiosity had faded, replaced by a self-satisfied smile. It wasn't quite Taako's self-satisfied smile as per usual, but Barry didn't pause, then, to think about what that meant.

He was facing a universe of infinite surprises with a team of familiar people. And, in a way that he hoped might become usual, he was sure he could handle them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dig comments, y'all!


	4. Magnus Rolls With the Punches

Magnus had the greatest idea of all time.

This happened to Magnus more often than not, more often even than Magnus expected it to happen, so he wasn't greeting it with fanfare or anything, but still. Greatest idea of all time. 

"You know what I haven't done?" he asked the room, rhetorically, so excited about this greatest idea that he didn't realize he had cut Lup off in the middle of her thought until it was too late. He jumped to apologize before anything else. "Oh, sorry, Lup, didn't mean to cut you off." Back now to the idea. "But I've never been to, like, a biker bar. I mean, a super rough joint."

_I mean, what better way to spend our last night on this planet than getting smashed in a place no one will know us? I can get into a fight with some bully. Maybe I'll get a black eye or something. Oh, shit, I hope I get a black eye. That'll look so cool. So are you guys with me, or are you with me?_

He didn't include any of this in his initial proposal. It was implied, he figured, by the "super rough joint" part. What else does a person even do at a super rough joint other than get absolutely smashed and fight bullies?

Not everyone felt the same confidence in his plan - although Merle was all in from the start, which Magnus was pleased about - but they warmed up to the idea after giving each other the fifth degree. Asking questions seemed to make the team feel better about things.

"Do you know where the nearest rough joint is?" Lucretia asked, not looking up from her book.

"Nah," Magnus said. "Isn't that the fun part? Looking for it will be like an adventure!"

"As adventures go, that kind of pales in comparison to going to space, don't you think?" Taako mused.

Merle shrugged. "That's why we're doing this before we go to space, I guess."

"Yeah, exactly!" Magnus said. "It's gonna be great, you guys, trust me."

He looked around the room, eager for the nods he knew were coming. Merle was already enthusiastic about the plan, and Lup and Taako seemed on board. Barry accepted with no more than a tilt of his head - poor guy looked nervous as all hell. Even Lucretia was into it, giving Magnus a quick thumbs up when he glanced at her. Magnus, along with all the other heads in the room, turned to Captain Davenport - Cap'n'port, one of Magnus's new favorite portmanteaus - for the final word.

"I don't see why not."

Magnus was sure his whoop of delight shook the other eleven planes.

He led the team of space voyagers on an admittedly more pedestrian voyage through the streets of the city beyond the headquarters of the IPRE. The suns were just starting to set, but it wasn't dark enough yet for the streetlights to flicker on. Magnus admired the way all the buildings seemed to be lit by some cosmic pink spotlight.

The thing he hadn't realized about biker bars was that they aren't super easy to find.

"There's gotta be one around here somewhere," Magnus announced.

"You've said that every time we've turned a corner for the past five blocks," Lucretia said. Magnus bristled, but she didn't sound annoyed or put out - just stating facts. He unbristled.

"Well, if I keep saying that, eventually I'll be right," he pointed out.

"What makes a biker bar a biker bar, really?" Barry asked.

"Bikers," Lup said.

"I mean, that was rhetorical, but thank you, Lup. I just mean, y'know, we could go to a normal bar! Nothin' wrong with a normal bar."

"No, no," Merle admonished him. "Magnus got me excited about this whole biker bar thing! As soon as we find one, this is gonna be great, you'll see."

Magnus clapped Merle on the shoulder with a grin. "That's the spirit! Come on guys, there's gotta be one around here somewhere."

* * *

In a disappointing turn of events, there was no fight going on when they entered the bar. For a place that had to be fight-prone based solely on the hole where a door should have been, everything inside was relatively peaceful. A stocky dragonborn sat alone at a round table. Several beefy men and women lined the bar. A broken Skee-Ball machine popped and sizzled in one corner. The bartender wiped out glasses with a rag that had seen better, cleaner days in which it still might not have passed the barest of health inspections.

Even without people roughhousing in what should have been a pretty rough house, Magnus still couldn't have envisioned a more perfect place to get into it in his last night on this planet.

"Skee-Ball? Damn, this is a cool bar," Barry said.

Magnus agreed wholeheartedly.

The team split off into various singles, pairs, and small groups. Cap'n'port made his way to the end of the bar, choosing a seat near the door so he could keep an eye on everyone, Magnus assumed. Merle and Lucretia moved toward the busted Skee-Ball, not together, but not separate, either. Lucretia sat down beside it. Merle sat down on it, although not before stopping for a mug from the bar. The twins made a beeline for the pool tables, and after a moment of cautious hanging back, Barry followed them, leaving Magnus alone in the middle of the room with few places left to stake out as his own. 

That was cool. Magnus could roll with the punches. Magnus was aiming to roll with some actual punches tonight, anyway.

He approached the dragonborn at the table and pointed at the other chair. "This seat taken?"

The dragonborn waved a hand at it, indicating Magnus could sit. "Is now."

"Okay, cool, thank you." Magnus sat and looked around the bar for a moment. "So, uh, does this place have a name? The sign out front just said 'bar.'"

"Yeah, it's just called Bar," the dragonborn said. They took a swig of their drink. "Owner's not exactly a creative type. Regulars call it Cronar's Cave though - Cronar is the owner, and you saw the door."

Magnus chuckled. "How did that happen, anyway?"

The dragonborn laughed, a throaty chuckle that made it sound like they were gargling gravel. "Bunch of my buddies got into a fight. Bluebell got so mad she kicked the door down, and the whole frame went with it." They paused, their laughter going silent. "Shit, this place is full of safety hazards."

"Your friend Bluebell sounds like a total badass!" Magnus said.

"Sure is."

They lapsed into silence. Magnus looked around the bar again, trying to pick out each member of the team. Cap'n'port was drinking and looking more relaxed than Magnus had seen him, like, ever. Taako was talking to a pair of half-elves, and Lup and Barry were engaged in what looked like a very intense conversation. Merle was standing on the Skee-Ball machine, seemingly preaching to a small crowd of bikers. Lucretia sat next to him, writing down everything as it happened.

"I'm Magnus," Magnus said, trying to beat the silence that hovered over their table like a stormcloud.

"Kava."

More silence.

 _Alright, fine_ , Magnus thought. He hadn't realized he'd have to pull out his conversational trump card so early in the game. "Arm-wrestle me, Kava."

"Sorry, what?"

"I think I can beat you at arm-wrestling," Magnus insisted. "Arm-wrestle me."

Kava pulled up their sleeve, exposing a scaly bicep that would intimidate any rational challenger. Magnus didn't give himself time to be intimidated, rolling up his own sleeve and propping his elbow on the table.

"Are we betting anything?" Kava asked.

Magnus shook his head. "Nah. I don't have any money cuz I'm going to space tomorrow."

Kava blinked in surprise but didn't press further with the question they were clearly thinking, which Magnus figured was along the lines of  _Space? What the fuck?_   Instead, they counted down from three and began trying to slam Magnus's arm into the table as Magnus tried to slam their arm into the table.

It was almost a fair fight, but after a few minutes of straining and weird eye contact and Magnus making puns to try to get Kava to laugh and be distracted and Kava making puns for the same reason, Magnus took a deep breath and forced Kava's arm to the wooden tabletop.

Kava let out a string of Draconic curses. "Good thing we weren't betting," they said. "You can't beat Bluebell, though."

"Yeah? I'd like to try."

"Be right back."

Kava stood up from the table and went to the bar, standing among a group of people even burlier than them. Magnus, meanwhile, decided he also wanted an audience. He caught Davenport's eye and waved. "Hey, Cap'n'port! Come watch me beat everyone's butts at arm-wrestling!"

"I'll be over in a second, Magnus," Davenport replied, taking another swig of his drink.

Returning from the bar, Kava trailed behind a mean-looking dwarf with only one eye. A swath of blue cloth was tied around her head where an eyepatch would normally go.  _Damn,_ Magnus thought, _that's really badass. I wonder how Merle would look in an eyepatch._

"This is Bluebell," Kava said. "She's gonna fuck your shit up."

Bluebell nodded at Magnus - despite her face, which might have been permanently twisted into an expression of low-level rage, her demeanor was serene. "Nice to meet you, Magnus," she said. "I'm gonna fuck your shit up."

Magnus grinned. "I'll take that challenge."

She almost had him a few times, but Magnus recovered each time, fighting his arm back up into the vertical position. He could see how this woman could have kicked an entire door and doorframe down. 

Magnus was so focused on Bluebell and the arm-wrestling that he didn't hear whatever made her turn away from him in surprise. He slammed her arm into the table.

"Shit, sorry," Magnus said. "Didn't realize you weren't..."

He trailed off at the second shout. A pair of men were shoving each other by the Skee-Ball machine. One of them grabbed the other by the collar and pointed at a figure sitting next to him. A figure who was, though obscured by the men, clearly writing in two notebooks at once.

Magnus stood up, brushed past both Kava and Bluebell, and walked right up to the men.

"And what the hell's she even doin'?" demanded the taller one. "Bet she's a fuckin' snitch or a plant or some shit! You know what I do to snitches. I'm gonna-"

"Listen man, don't you fuckin' touch anybody-"

The taller one punched the shorter one in the face.

Magnus bounced on the balls of his feet, gleeful that finally, here was what he suggested the biker bar for, and stepped between the taller man and Lucretia. He dodged the first punch from the taller man and felt the second one glance off his jaw. He balled his hands into fists and pictured a frightened dog and a gang of childhood bullies. With a smile still firmly stuck to his lips, Magnus felt the satisfying thud of a hook punch connecting with a face.

A roar came up from behind him. He heard glass smash. The tall man shoved him towards the center of the bar. Magnus shoved back. He felt someone grab his arm and spun to face them, barely bringing his arm up in time to block a hand flying at his face.

Every time he took a breath and managed a look around, the fight had expanded. Magnus was sure most of these people had no clue what they were fighting about, but Magnus concentrated on the dude who was gonna lay hands on Lucretia, wavering in his focus only to defend himself from other people.

When the heel of someone's palm hit Magnus in the eye, pushing his head back a little bit, he let out a whoop.  _There's my badass black eye!_

* * *

"It was insane!" Magnus crowed. "Lucretia, I'm glad you made it out okay."

They were walking back to the IPRE. The stormfront that had been gathering as they went into the bar - Bar - had settled in the sky, pendulous and black as coal above them. Despite the darkness, Magnus felt light of heart and light on his feet. He recounted the fight to Merle and Lucretia and Cap'n'port, who were walking in a small huddle around him. Barry and the twins were a few steps ahead, passing out of the glow of each streetlight just as Magnus stepped into it. 

Lucretia smiled. "Merle made sure no one got near me, which was frankly disappointing. I had a terrible vantage point. My descriptions of the fight sound forced."

"I know that's your joking voice, but  _jeez_ ," Merle groaned. "Live a little."

"I tried to. You wouldn't let me get a better vantage point."

Magnus chuckled. "So, for real, guys. How's my eye?"

"Too dark to tell," Cap'n'port said. "I'm sure you'll have a real shiner in the morning."

"Yes!" Magnus pumped a fist. "Hey, thanks for going along with this plan, guys. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I feel like I could do anything now."

"Even a space voyage?" Cap'n'port asked.

Magnus smiled into the night. "Especially a space voyage."

 

 

 


	5. Lup Throws Down

"You can't have done  _everything_."

This was the thing about Lup - she loved a challenge, but she didn't like  _being_ challenged. She said she'd done everything there was to do on this planet, and she meant it. What was the point of saying something you didn't mean, anyway? Not lying, that was different; lying was necessary sometimes. But you still gotta mean it when you're lying to someone's face. Point being, she wouldn't have said it if she wasn't sure of it.

"Uh, pretty sure I have, homie," she said, feeling Taako get ready to back her up with a list of shit they'd done. She held up a finger to tick off their exploits. "Lived on the streets."

"Lived on the road."

"Lived with our aunt."

She and Taako sped up their diction as they got further into the list, saying more faster. She went through all of her fingers, and all of Taako's fingers, before Magnus cut her off with his biker bar idea.

She wasn't mad. Magnus got overexcited and rushed into things sometimes. A lot of the time, even. But that was the thing about Magnus, and Lup wasn't about to get mad at anybody over their thing.

On top of not being mad, she was enthusiastic about the idea of a rough joint. She figured they might have a pool table, though she didn't want to get her hopes up - that was another thing about Lup, she didn't like to get her hopes up - and if there was one thing she and Taako knew how to do, it was hustle people vis-a-vis pool. Taako was excited too, thinking the exact same thing Lup was, which she knew without asking, because, y'know, twins.

Davenport seemed optimistic. Lup hadn't known him for long, and still didn't  _know_ him, not in the way she knew Taako, for example, not even close, but she got the sense that he was trying so, so hard to be seen as a competent leader. That was the thing about Davenport. Lup also got the sense, from the rest of the team, that she wasn't the only one who wanted Davenport to loosen up once in a while.

Merle was egging Magnus on. "I genuinely don't see any possible way this could go wrong," he was saying, in fact. Lup laughed at that. She could see several ways this evening could go south, but so long as she was able to avoid getting into any shit, which she imagined she would be, because she always had been, any of the ways the evening could go south would be a mountain and a half of fun.

Lucretia seemed less than reassured by Merle's enthusiasm, but she wasn't nervous. Lup could see that much in the steadiness of her hands.

Barry was nervous. Barry was always nervous - you could chalk it up to any number of things, but when you got right to it, that was just the thing about Barry.

* * *

 Lup and Taako chalked up their cues.

There was a strange sort of sameness about pool tables in bars. They all had the same dirty green felt with one or two mysterious liquid stains and a bump you had to avoid or risk scratching. They all had a rack of cues that were full of nicks, dings, and splinters but still stayed polished somehow. They all had that weird little cube of blue chalk, a single inverted dome in the center carved by hundreds of cues in hundreds of games, that managed to get all over your fingertips no matter how careful you were to only grip the paper part.

"Taako," Lup said, "how many bars do you think we've been in?"

Taako shrugged. "Two? Maybe more, even."

They both laughed at that. A sense of humor was among the many things - like a birthday, an aunt, and a love of magic - that they had shared for their entire lives.

Lup sometimes wondered if she cared too much about Taako. That wasn't the right phrasing and she knew it, because there's no such thing as caring too much about your family. Family's all you've got. But there was no better way to phrase it, either. She and Taako had spent years of their lives clinging tight to each other like Velcro, everything they did intertwined, also like Velcro but when you get really close to it and you can see the individual hooks and loops. (Hooks and Lups, hah.)

They had been a team of two for as long as they'd been anything. Now that they were part of a bigger team, Lup figured she'd have to do some clinging to somebody other than Taako. She wasn't sure what that would feel like.

She wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

Still half-lost in her own thoughts, she spotted a pair of people in clothing that had seen better days, and probably the jaws and claws of several large cats, approaching the pool tables. She inclined her head toward them. Taako nodded in return, revolving to speak to the pair as soon as they got within shouting distance, leaving Lup free to zone out again.

Dimly, she processed Barry climbing up on the ripped-up table, criss-crossing his legs like a little kid in class, and propping his chin on his hand to watch them play.

"Hey," she said.

"Oh, hey, sorry. Do you mind if I sit?"

Lup shrugged. "Not my table." She pushed herself onto the table next to him, letting her feet hang and kicking them, reminding herself of a little kid, too, in a high chair too high for her. "So what do you think we're gonna find in the other planes, anyway, huh? Don't give me your press-conference answer. I wanna hear about the cool stuff."

She was just making conversation until Taako was done convincing the half-elves in the torn vests that nine-ball was a good idea, but damned if Barry's face didn't light up. If Lup didn't know better, she would have sworn she'd offered him a metric assload of grant money, or some similar thing that scientists want.

"I mean, I don't know what the cool stuff is, Lup," he replied. "No one does. That's what makes it the cool stuff! What if there's matter that's just... not like our matter? I can't even fathom what form it would take, that's how cool it'll be."

She nodded, also unable to fathom what form  _matter that's just not like our matter_ would take. She asked him about space pirates instead, and they had a lively discussion about what exactly that would entail. Lup was formulating a new nemesis - space ninjas, of course - when she realized Barry was no longer paying attention. Instead, he was looking past her, at Taako, and as Lup came back down from space, she felt her brother's eyes on her.

"You ready, Lup?" Taako asked.

Barry nudged her with his elbow, not even enough to be a nudge, sort of tapping his elbow on her bicep. "I think it's time for you to hustle some idiots," he said.

"Hey!" Lup got a better look at the half-elf woman, who was brandishing a pool cue like a bo staff and glaring, somehow good-naturedly, at Barry. "Your nerd friend smack-talks too?"

"Zing!" Lup elbowed Barry a lot harder than he elbowed her, and he rubbed his arm indignantly. "She doesn't even know you and she knows you're a nerd!" She turned back to the woman. "But yes, he does smack-talk, because he knows you and your blockhead friend don't stand a fuckin' chance."

"Zing!" the woman echoed Lup, pushing her friend so hard he stumbled. "She doesn't even know you and she knows you're a blockhead!"

"I like this girl," Lup said, turning to Taako. "Where'd you find her?"

"Like, twenty feet away from us. You were there," Taako answered, and Lup chuckled again.

The first three rounds went about as expected - Taako and Lup won the first handily, then pulled back and let the blockhead and his friend win the second before resurging to crush them in the third. The fourth round was shaping up to be an almost even match, just as it always was. Lup was chalking up her pool cue as Taako lined up a shot. She looked across the bar, not watching anything in particular, until her eyes and ears were drawn to a shout.

A guy punched another guy in the face.

Magnus stepped between them.

"Shit," Lup muttered under her breath. She turned to Taako. "Do you think the team is getting into it?" The whole team, not just Magnus. Or even just Magnus! Did it matter? Should they be there to back them up? Taako and Lup stayed the hell away from fights, but they backed each other up when they needed it. In pool as in life-or-death situations.

Taako sensed all this in Lup, she knew. He shook his head. "I'm not dealing with that shit."

"No kidding," Lup replied. It was Magnus's problem, Taako was right about that. She didn't know what caused the fight. She didn't know why Magnus was so insistent on getting involved, and as chief security officer, he must be able to defend himself. It wasn't her job to run into that fight when she was just fine out here.

She looked at Barry, who was leaning so far forward he was about to fall off the pool table. He looked nervous. The thing about Barry was that he was always nervous.

Right?

Lup grimaced. "I'm just gonna go make sure nobody's getting killed before we blast the fuck off. Be right back."

"You forfeiting the game?" asked the blockhead.

"Hell no, homie," she said, already tossing her pool cue at Taako, who caught it with an unmistakable expression that communicated nothing but  _what the fuck, Lulu?_   "Taako's gonna play for both of us. Besides, I'll only be a second."

Feeling like there was no bigger idiot in the world than her, she did something she figured only dumbasses and Magnus, who might also be a dumbass, did - she ran  _into_ a fight.

Lup imagined this must be what it's like to live in a kaleidoscope. Or suffocate. Hard to say. Every second, every fraction of a second, the scene around her refracted and changed. Bikers tackled and punched and elbowed each other. She was bounced around like a pinball, snapping at everyone who tried to lay a hand on her that they better not fucking try it. She saw Magnus get a palm to the face and whoop like a fucking maniac. She saw Merle climb up on the bar, hands outstretched, and try - and fail - to calm the roiling martial sea. She saw Lucretia's head pop out from behind the bar, obviously chronicling the story of this evening, and she saw Merle gently push her back down and continue to shield her with his body and the bar. She saw Davenport, sitting at the end of the bar, grinning.

A man hit Lup in the back of the head. She turned and elbowed him in the face, one smooth, circular motion. Lup had fought people before, of course, but this felt... kind of great? "This" being the knowledge that this was her last night on this planet, her final chance to let fuckin'  _loose_ in a place where no one would see her face again, at least not for several years.

She saw a bottle at her feet, glistening green like the shell of some rare beetle. She saw a woman about twice her size and four times her mass about to throw a punch at Magnus.

The bottle arced through the air from her hand, a perfect parabola. Lup didn't even see where it landed. She didn't really care, either. She let out a whoop, a roar of delight, and saw Barry next to her, looking sweaty and nervous and - she wasn't above tooting her own horn - impressed. She grinned at him and felt the kaleidoscope push her back out towards her brother, towards pool.

"Gods," she heard herself say, walking back toward Taako like she was underwater. "These assholes know how to throw down. I threw a bottle."

Barry panted behind her. "I tried to stop her from throwing the bottle."

"Obviously you didn't try very hard," Taako pointed out. "Lulu, did you actually fight someone?"

"I'm not an idiot." This wasn't an answer, and Taako knew it, but he didn't push her in front of other people, least of all strangers. Team of two. "Just made sure everyone was cool, and maybe yelled and threw a bottle. Y'know. Cool shit."

She smacked the high-five Taako offered.

They killed it in their fifth round of nine-ball.

* * *

 "That," Barry said, "was  _so_ dangerous."

Lup and Barry and Taako were leading the way back to the IPRE. Lup carried her own shoes in her hand, wearing instead the pair she had won off of the blockhead's friend. Taako got the blockhead's shoes, which were enchanted. Lup had argued she should get them for doing the most badass stunt of the night, but Taako won rock-paper-scissors, and the thing about Lup and Taako was that rock-paper-scissors was fucking  _sacred_.

"So?" Lup said, nonchalant as all hell even though she didn't quite feel it.

"You could've, I dunno, died, or something! The night before the mission!"

Lup laughed. "No way, my dude, I'm gonna live forever."

"That would suck," Barry said.

Lup looked at Taako, who looked back at her. His eyes weren't unreadable, but Lup didn't want to read them. "Yeah," she conceded. "It would."

They walked in silence between the street lights, their feet in step with each other, Barry taking strides that must have been uncomfortably long for him to stay on pace with the twins. Lup smiled without knowing why.

"So Taako," she said. "Settle this for us. Space pirates or space ninjas?"

"Space pirates, obviously."

The thing about Lup was that she trusted Taako. More than anyone, more than anything, more than any institution or law of nature. She trusted him to have her back, and she trusted that he'd be untrustworthy to other people when it counted. The thing about Taako, she knew, was that he trusted her, too. That was their thing.

 _Is that_ just _our thing?_

"I dunno," said Barry. "I think you could make a case for space ninjas."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi I cried when Lup and Barry played their duet because they just love each other SO MUCH


	6. Merle Climbs On Things

"Have you heard the word of Pan?"

Merle couldn't help it - that had become his standard conversational opener. Having spent his early adulthood trying to escape the exclusivity of the enclave that brought him to Pan Camp every summer, but also not having any clue how to talk about anything other than Pan, it developed into a reflex. It had gotten him into trouble with some easily-annoyed priests more than once, but hey, old habits.

"Uh, no, can't say I have," growled the orc in the checkered bandana. "Should I care?"

Merle nodded, sage, wise, which he hoped made him look cool even though he was clambering onto the ramp of the Skee-Ball machine to get himself a little closer to eye level with the orc. "Oh, absolutely," he said. "You look like a guy who's been searching for a little more meaning in his life."

The orc furrowed his jutting brow and bobbed his massive head. "How'd you know?"

"Just a feeling I had."

Merle didn't mention that he, too, must have looked like a guy who had been searching for a little more meaning in his life. It wasn't coincidental that he had ended up at the IPRE, ended up on an interplanar space mission, ended up lookin' for God in all the wrong places.

_D_ _id I really say that at the press conference? I hope I did, that's hilarious._

It wasn't coincidental that he was at this bar, either. Merle knew there had to be a higher power and a larger plan (a Pan plan) guiding his life somewhere around here - maybe not in this bar, maybe not in this town, but somewhere around here.

If he could just find it.

"Wait," said the orc. "Let me get Kieran."

"Sure thing," Merle said. "I can wait."

The orc lumbered off to the bar and hipchecked another orc. Merle watched them but couldn't read their lips. Beside him, he became aware of a tall, slim woman sitting at a round table, writing in two journals, one with each hand.

"Hey, Lucretia," he said, sitting down on the Skee-Ball ramp. "Sorry, didn't see you sit down."

Lucretia jutted her chin out towards her notebooks, and Merle kept silent for a moment, assuming she had to finish a thought. Sure enough, she put both pens down after a few more words and turned in her chair to face Merle. She was smiling.

"I don't think this is the most traditional place to preach," she said.

Merle chuckled. "Hey, Pan doesn't discriminate. Or he shouldn't, anyway. If these bikers want me to talk about religion at them, I'm not gonna pass on the opportunity."

"Shouldn't?" she asked by way of response.

Merle felt himself make a face. Leave it to Lucretia to pick that one up. "Well, I was saving it for my memoirs," Merle joked, "but yeah. Shouldn't. I mean, I've never met Pan, so I guess I wouldn't know, but... well, even if Pan doesn't want bikers hanging out at his camps, I do."

"Noble."

"Nah, I'm not trying to be  _noble_ or anything, per se, I'm just..."

Lucretia smiled wider. "Your audience is back."

Merle stood back up on the Skee-Ball ramp. Checkered Bandana Orc was there, along with the orc named Kieran and a dwarf wearing scarred leather armor.

"Barain wanted to hear, too," said Checkered Bandana Orc.

"Oh, yeah, no problem," Merle said. "Y'know, I really believe in the more, the merrier. So, I'm Merle. And you guys are Barain, Kieran, and - I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Qajjas."

Merle blinked twice and blurted, "Uh, how do you spell that?"

"Like it sounds."

Beside him, he heard Lucretia laugh quietly. "Thanks anyway," she murmured, just loud enough that Merle suspected he was the only person in the room who could hear her. He grinned and addressed his congregation of three.

"So, here's the thing about Pan," Merle said. "You don't have to be some guy living alone in the forest and making clothes out of... tree bark, or something, to worship Pan. I mean, look at me - I grew up on the beach!"

Kieran coughed loudly, slipping a "Who cares?" into her fake hacking fit. Qajjas shushed her, jabbing her in the side with a meaty finger while keeping his eyes on Merle, soaking up every word of the impromptu sermon.

Merle steamrollered ahead, not letting Kieran embarrass him or make him falter. He prided himself on being a hard guy to embarrass. "What I'm saying, fellas, is that you can find Pan anywhere."

As Merle spoke, letting his mouth run and take him wherever it wanted to, he watched the room. He watched the way it seemed to warp as the groups of people within it ebbed and flowed like tides. He watched his little audience grow to four, then seven, then eight, then twelve people. He wished he had a step stool to put on top of the Skee-Ball machine - some of these motherfuckers were  _tall._ He watched Davenport take long swigs of his drink and chat amicably with the bartender. He watched the twins shoot some artful nine-ball. He glanced down, every so often, and watched Lucretia chronicle everything he was watching.

 _I wonder if she chronicles the fact that she's chronicling stuff,_ Merle wondered offhand.

As if reading his thoughts, one of the members of the crowd - an orc that made Merle wish he had not just a step stool, but a whole ladder - shoved his way past Qajjas and Barain and Kieran to scrutinize Lucretia, who didn't even look up from her journals.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, clearly looking at Lucretia.

Merle answered anyway. "I'm Merle Highchurch. I'm-"

"Not you!" The orc flung a few curses that Merle didn't understand and didn't want to. "Her!"

"Shut up, Huro," Qajjas hissed. "I can't hear this tiny man if you're yelling."

_Ladder. Ladder would be great._

"Don't tell me to shut up, Qajjas!" Huro yelled, gesturing at Lucretia. "Do you know who she is? What's she writing for?"

"Who cares?" Qajjas retorted, not bothering to cough around it, as Kieran had. He opened his mouth as if to follow up, but the words left him as Huro shoved him in the chest. "Hey!" Qajjas yelled.

"And what the hell's she even doin'?" Huro demanded. "Bet she's a fuckin' snitch or a plant or some shit! You know what I do to snitches. I'm gonna-"

Qajjas stepped forward. "Listen man, don't you fuckin' touch anybody-"

Huro punched Qajjas in the face.

Merle, who had been slowly lowering himself from the Skee-Ball machine this whole time, trying not to draw any attention to himself, sprang into action. He put an arm around Lucretia's shoulders and hauled her out of her chair, snatching up her notebooks with the other hand. Pulling her down so she was below the level of the punching orcs, he half-guided, half-dragged her behind the bar. 

"Stay back here," Merle muttered. Lucretia nodded, clearly not paying a whit of attention to Merle. She was already flipping open her journals to the pages she had left off on.

Merle, wondering how many things he was going to climb on before the night ended, hauled himself onto the bar top. The bartender didn't notice, being as he had leapt over the bar and joined the fray as soon as Huro threw the first punch. With his better vantage point, Merle realized that in the time it took him to hustle Lucretia to safety, the fight had swollen to engulf almost half the bar and half the patrons in it. He saw Magnus's head pop up among the roiling waves of combatants, grinning like it was his birthday and Candlenights rolled into one. He didn't see Barry or Lup in the fight, but he didn't see them at the pool tables, either. 

_I can't let the team get hurt before we even leave. Some medic I'd be._

"Everyone - hey - everyone, just calm down!" Merle shouted, straining to be heard above the miscellaneous roars and hoots and grunts of pain. He held up both hands in the universal gesture for  _cut it out, I don't want any trouble._

They did not cut it out, and judging by the bottle that was getting larger with every passing fraction of a second, Merle was about to get some trouble.

He heard the bottle scrape the side of his head more than felt it, a delicate thunk followed by the sound of hair getting tangled in glass followed by a tinkling shatter somewhere behind him. He twisted, making sure that the bottle hadn't gotten Lucretia, only to realize she wasn't where he had left her. She had laid her journals out on the bar next to him and was writing down every detail of the fight, eyes wide and shining like it was her birthday and Candlenights rolled into one.

_Gee, why is everyone having so much fun with this fight?_

Merle nudged Lucretia back to safety under the bar. He repeated this cycle two more times - try to calm people, dodge some bottles, shepherd Lucretia back under the bar - before the conflict dissolved. 

The cut on the side of his head was starting to scab over. He touched it, a little smear of blood coming back on his fingers.

"You're hurt," Lucretia said as Merle picked his way back over to the Skee-Ball machine.

Merle shrugged. "It's not too bad. I'll just heal myself up. I'm just glad no one was seriously injured."

Lucretia looked at him for a moment. Merle was used to her keeping to herself, and he couldn't remember if he'd ever been the subject of her gaze, full force. There was a cool command in it, somewhere, like she was assessing him for his worth to the historical record, determining who he would be for posterity and determining whether his was a story worth telling.

"Thank you," she said, and Merle didn't need to ask what she was thanking him for.

* * *

 "It was insane!" Magnus crowed. He was sporting a developing black eye, which Merle hadn't hesitated to compliment him on as soon as they all reunited at the end of the night. It hadn't totally developed yet, and it was hard to see without the overhead lights of the bar, but Merle could tell it would look badass as all get-out in the morning.

Lucretia complained that Merle wouldn't let her get a better vantage point for the fight. Merle teased her about her constant chronicling. Davenport teased Magnus about bringing them all to a biker bar. Merle and Magnus joked with Davenport about drinking the night before a space voyage. Davenport asked Lucretia not to mention the drink he'd had in her story, only partly joking.

Merle forgot to heal the cut from the bottle on his head, and by the time he realized it, late at night, tossing and turning because he couldn't sleep, he didn't want to heal it anymore. Tonight felt like the kind of night he'd want to remember.

Overtaken by something, he didn't know what, Merle started chuckling to himself.

He looked up at the ceiling, speaking to someone - Pan, himself, his teammates, he couldn't have said - without caring if his target audience heard him. He'd done enough preaching for one night, thank you very much.

"I was right," Merle said, still chuckling. "That couldn't have gone any more right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Do Not Know How To Write Merle


	7. Lucretia Puts Herself in the Story

_In the evening before the mission was to launch, the crew - and of course by "the crew" the reader should infer that the idea came solely from Magnus Burnsides, chief security officer of the crew - decided their last night on the planet for some time would be best spent at a bar. A really rough joint, in fact, the roughest they could find in town. Of course, some were more amenable to this idea than others, but none of them believed the trip (however ridiculous the idea may have seemed at first) would be worthwhile if it didn't include all of them._

_The suns were beginning to set as they left the Institute, without a map or directions but with some rudimentary knowledge of where the roughest part of town was located._

"Hey, Earth to Lucretia," Taako said.

She looked down, startled. She had been staring at the sunset behind Taako's head, trying to determine what the best descriptor for it would be. It was an ordinary sunset, beautiful, of course, but just like it was most nights. But she had to consider the possibility that people from other planets, other planes, might want to read this story. The sunset, one sun just before the other, was the sort of scientific detail framed in a beautiful light that a reader like Barry might appreciate.

"We are going to space tomorrow," Davenport pointed out. "I think we all have our heads in the clouds right now."

Taako shrugged. "Fair point, homie," he said. "I just wanted to tell her she was about to walk into a street light."

"Thank you, Taako," she said, careful to move to the area of the sidewalk that contained no lights.

"There's gotta be one around here somewhere," Magnus said, swiveling his head like an owl trying to find a mouse.

Lucretia smiled. "You've said that every time we've turned a corner for the past five blocks."

"Well," Magnus said, undeterred, which was good, Lucretia hadn't meant her comment as a deterrent, "if I keep saying that, eventually I'll be right."

_The place they found was dilapidated enough to suit Magnus, at the very least. The door and doorframe were gone, seeming to have been torn from their neat place in the walls by brute force, leaving behind a ragged rectangular hole. A wooden sign informed passers-by that this was, in fact, a bar. The sign gave no further information. Some propelled by curiosity, others by excitement, still others by a desire to make sure their fellow crewmates didn't get into too much trouble, they entered the bar, one by one._

_A careful reader will, of course, have discerned already what many of the crew members did to occupy their time once inside the bar. Taako and Lup, Starblaster chefs and arcana experts, made for the pool table. Barry Bluejeans, head science officer, made a circuit of the room before attending to the developing game of nine-ball as well._

Lucretia watched, from her chair beside the broken Skee-Ball machine, as Taako shot the break. He and Lup moved fluidly, trading places at the table as smooth and rhythmic as breathing. The people they were playing, and presumably betting against, played well, but they didn't have the same grace as the twins. While Lucretia was too far away to hear what the group was saying, she could tell the bikers were strategizing aloud as Taako and Lup, serene as they could get (which was not very), kept their mouths shut on the topic of strategy. Barry, sitting beside the game, watching the action develop, kept his eyes not on the game but on the players.

Whenever there was a break in the action, Lup and Barry spoke in little snippets, making each other laugh. Taako had to take some of Lup's shots because she couldn't steady her laughing hands in time.

_Captain Davenport kept watch over his crew by the door and made pleasant conversation with the bartender and other bar patrons._

Davenport looked more relaxed than Lucretia believed she'd ever seen him before. The stress of being a captain and an authority figure pulled his shoulders tight and his spine straight and his lips taut whenever he was with the crew. Even his jokes and teasing came out of that rigid frame. Now, though, he was leaning an elbow on the bar and gesticulating with his other hand as the bartender threw his head back and laughed at whatever Davenport was saying. Occasionally, he turned to look at a member of his crew and wave or smile or have a brief, shouted conversation. When Lucretia looked up again as she paused to find an appropriate word, Davenport was grinning at her, giving her a thumbs-up.

She gave him a thumbs-up back.

_Magnus challenged a succession of people to arm-wrestle him._

The first was a dragonborn who looked like they could not only tear a person in half but definitely would given the chance. The second was a one-eyed dwarf with arms like cannon muzzles. Lucretia watched Magnus chat amicably with the dragonborn even as the both of them strained to out-strong-arms the other. Lucretia had never arm-wrestled Magnus, and she wasn't certain she wanted to, judging by the force with which he finally managed to push the dragonborn's arm to the table, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't look like a lot of fun.

"Hey, Cap'n'port!" she heard him yell after the dragonborn conceded. "Come watch me beat everyone's butts at arm-wrestling!"

Davenport nodded his assent, and Magnus turned to Lucretia and pointed at her journals, raising an eyebrow as if to ask if she was getting all this down for posterity. Lucretia laughed. Watching him arm-wrestle was a lot of fun, too.

_Merle Highchurch, resident medic and biologist, climbed atop a broken Skee-Ball machine to deliver an impromptu sermon._

"I don't think this is the most traditional place to preach," Lucretia said. Merle's audience of one went to get his friend, and Merle sat down on the Skee-Ball machine next to her. He shrugged good-naturedly.

"Hey, Pan doesn't discriminate. Or he shouldn't, anyway."

"Shouldn't?"

"Well, I was saving it for my memoirs," Merle quipped. Lucretia didn't point out that she was, more or less, writing his memoirs, along with the rest of the team's, as they spoke. Though she supposed she wouldn't want that to stop him from writing his own - Lucretia firmly believed that any good story deserved to be told from as many sides as possible. And anyway, who even knew what happened on the regular in Merle's head? His would be some interesting memoirs.

Lucretia saw the orc who was eager to learn about Pan return with an even larger orc and a dwarf. She tilted her head toward them. "Your audience is back."

_As the evening wore on, the patrons of the bar began to get louder, drunker, and more restless. Taako and Lup won another round of nine-ball. The bartender offered Davenport another drink, free of charge, which Davenport declined on the grounds that he would, in fact, be piloting an interplanar space vehicle the next morning._

_In the crowd surrounding Merle, which had grown considerably since he began his sermon, an altercation broke out between a pair of orcs. As they argued, their volume increased, and they began to shove each other, getting dangerously close to Merle's Skee-Ball machine. As the argument reached a fever pitch, the larger of the two orcs raised a fist and-_

Lucretia felt an arm yanking her out of her seat. The pens she had been writing with made twin smears across her journals as she was dragged away from the fight. 

"Hey! Merle!" she protested, already being deposited on the floor behind the bar. Merle put her journals down in front of her, just as they had been on the table.

"Couldn't have anyone taking a swing at you," Merle said, the softest goddamn smile on his face. "Stay here."

_-punched the other in the face. This incited, as quick as a match in hay incites a fire, a riot in the bar. The bartender leapt in, not to stop it, but to participate. The audience, which had so soon before been listening to Merle preach the word of Pan, became wild animals, swinging their fists at anyone who came close. Merle climbed up on the bar to get above the fight and tried, and failed, to-_

"Lucretia! Come on, I told you to stay there!" Merle was glaring at her, albeit without any real malice in his eyes and with a cut oozing on the side of his head. "There's people throwing bottles."

"So?" she asked, not looking up from her writing. "I can't see behind the bar."

Merle grumbled something unintelligible and nudged her until she sighed and sank back down behind the bar. She waited until he wasn't looking and popped her head up again. How was she supposed to chronicle what happened to the team if she couldn't see it?

* * *

 "So how did you get involved?" Lucretia asked, leveling her gaze at Magnus, a pen in each hand, poised over a journal beneath each wrist.

Magnus snorted. "I mean, I knew up front that I wanted to get a black eye tonight, so I just rushed into it. That guy had no business starting a fight over you being there, so I hit him for hitting the other guy. Pretty straightforward."

Lucretia blinked a few times. "That's why he was upset?"

"Yeah, he was pretty pissed off. I think he thought you were a cop?"

"Huh. Well, thank you for your help, Magnus."

"Yeah, sure thing. You want me to send in Lup?"

"You make this sound like I'm part of a police procedural."

He laughed, already halfway out the door. "You mean you're not?"

_Almost as soon as the fight broke out, Magnus stepped in, hoping to protect the innocent parties and convince the guilty ones that they ought not go around punching people. Having announced at the beginning of the evening, before the crew even left the IPRE, that he planned on getting involved in a fight before the night ended, he was pleased when he realized he was leaving the bar with a developing black eye. While it's not clear whether the fight's instigators learned their lesson from Magnus's involvement, the rest of his crew appreciated that he was willing to step in on their behalf._

"I didn't take any of you for the fighting type."

Lup and Taako had come into the common room together, and Barry followed with a brief explanation that Lucretia didn't need.

"Well, to be fair, I didn't get involved," Taako said. "Taako's good out here, you feel me?"

"I feel you," Lucretia said.

"I just had to make sure everyone was cool!" Lup retorted, although Lucretia hadn't realized that Taako had said anything requiring a retort. "Make sure no one got their ass killed the night before the mission. I ran in there once I realized Magnus and Merle and you got dragged into it. It didn't seem like anybody got hurt, though, so it was chill. I looked like a total badass, though - make sure you write that down. I threw a bottle."

"Were you the one who hit Merle?"

"Oh, no, no," Lup asked. "Total opposite direction. I don't think I hit anybody. It just felt good."

Lucretia nodded, wrote a few lines. "What about you, Barry?"

"Oh, I, uh... like Lup said. Just wanted to make sure no one was getting hurt."

She didn't press for more. Barry was a nervous type, and Lucretia got the feeling that if they were all going to feel comfortable with each other on the Starblaster, they'd have to learn when to keep pushing each other and when to lay off. She felt like she had a good handle on most of her crewmates, and with Barry, it seemed like it was better to err on the side of laying off, at least until she knew him better. Until she knew anybody better.

"But telling this story  _is_ how I'm getting to know them," she muttered.

"What?" Taako asked.

Lucretia shook her head. "Nothing. Sorry, just talking to myself. You three should get some rest."

"You should too," Barry pointed out.

_Lup, though she preferred to keep herself and her brother safe before anyone else, joined the fray to make sure her teammates were safe, too, as soon as she knew that Taako wasn't going to get involved in the fight. It will please the reader to note that she requested specifically to be called "badass" for the way she comported herself in the fight, and that descriptor is no exaggeration. Barry, too, stepped in to protect his crewmates and to prevent them from doing anything too dangerous. Judging by the crew's lack of major injuries, it is safe to say he succeeded._

"I didn't really get into it," Davenport admitted. "It wouldn't have been appropriate."

"I agree," Lucretia said. "You made a wise choice."

_As captain, Davenport was mindful of his responsibility to oversee the mission. He didn't involve himself in the fray, as he would need his wits about him for the next day, but he also didn't stop his crew from standing up for themselves and for each other._

"Merle," Lucretia said as he came in, eyeing her journals. "I didn't thank you properly for earlier."

"Oh, no, don't worry about it," Merle replied, waving a hand as if to swat away her concerns. "Just looking out for my friend, is all."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah, aren't we all friends? I mean, I think of all of us as friends."

Lucretia paused. "I wouldn't have said that, no, but I'm sure I'll grow to agree with you."

"Oh, for sure," Merle said, unbothered. "You can't stick a bunch of people on a spaceship together and expect them not to love each other. Or hate each other, I guess. But we won't hate each other."

"How do you know?"

Merle smiled. "Well, I guess I don't know about all of you. But it's a choice you make, and I'm choosing to love you guys. And keep you safe. And not let you get in the middle of bar fights!"

Lucretia laughed, and Merle laughed too. "Alright, alright, I thanked you already," she said.

"You're very welcome." Merle paused. "Hey, do you put yourself in that story, or do you just write down what we do?"

"I mean, as a biographer, it's not proper at all to put yourself and your own thoughts into the stories you tell. They're about people's lives, not about my opinions of those people."

"Well, you're a part of this mission, too," Merle said. "You should be a part of that story."

She couldn't help but smile, then. "Go to bed, Merle," she said.

"This coming from the woman who couldn't stay behind a damn bar," he retorted with a grin.

_After making sure I had everyone's story straight, I prepared for bed. It was impossible to say what the next day would bring, but I knew, as the rest of the crew knew, that we were all overwhelmed with anticipation to find out firsthand. Regardless of what we would find in the other planes, we would be together as a crew for all of it. I looked forward to choosing to love my crew, just as they would - I hoped - choose to love me._

_But I'm getting ahead of myself._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just finished The Stolen Century and could NOT handle it so the next chapter is going to be an optional sad ending. If you prefer happy endings, stop here


	8. Life Goes On

Lucretia cradles the journal to her chest.

It's not much to look at - black cover, cracked binding, ruffled pages, a little bit of dust settled on top of it from years on a shelf, or rather one year on a shelf, over and over again. Judging by the way the ink trails away from the words in gentle smears, connecting word to word like those white threads that bind the team back together after every cycle, it's one she wrote with her left hand.

Not just any one. The first one.

_I think this is a story worth telling well_ , she said at the press conference, before. 

She prays it's a story she'll be forgiven for erasing well, too. 

It's not permanent, she tells herself, it's only until she figures out how to stop the wars that rage below them, they call it one war but it's a thousand little wars every day. People fight with their friends. People turn against their parents, their siblings. People battle within themselves, trying and failing to resist the thrall of these objects they've unleashed on the world. Every death is the casualty of its own little war.

And Lucretia is going to stop this, she  _is_ , but she has to save her friends - her family - first. They are casualties, too, every day. She can save them. She can make them happy. And then she can save everyone else, too.

But she has to do this first.

The light from Fisher's tank washes over her hands, and the pale candlelight by which she works can't counteract Fisher's light. Her hands look blue. The red robe she wears is turned a deep maroon. She imagines she must look like a ghost.

They're all ghosts, now.

And she wants, so badly, to keep just this part. Just the part where they all go to a sketchy bar and hustle people at pool and get in a fight and have a fun night and become a team. But she knows she can't.

The first chapter of their story is the one where they become The Team, not just the crew. It's the one where Taako wins an enchanted pair of shoes that he still wears around, even though he complains every time that they don't go with anything he owns. It's the one where Magnus gets the black eye that will stick with him for a century. It's the one where Merle tries to make peace for the good of the team. It's the one where Davenport learns a captain can be a friend. It's the one where Barry realizes there's something about Lup, something that itches at him until the Legato Conservatory. It's the one where Lup first rushes into danger to protect people besides her brother.

It's the one where Lucretia realizes she deserves to be a part of the story.

The story she is about to erase, oh  _gods_ , there has to be another way.

She looks at Fisher, bobbing gently in the tank. The lights inside its bell twinkle like so many stars. It doesn't give her any help - how could it? Even Voidfish have to eat. She has the feast of a lifetime spread out before her in her quarters. She is clutching the first course like it will save her.

It will save her. It will save them all.

Lucretia takes a deep breath and flips again through the pages, swearing she can see the events of that night projected before her. She traces her finger over her own handwriting, trying to remember what it felt like to write it down the first time, before. Before it all.

She's just stalling now. Wasting time. She knows it.

She blows out the candles, spurred by some strange sense that she doesn't want the lights to see her do this. This is the point of no return. But there must be a return, because this is temporary, it's only temporary, and soon again her family will remember.

Fisher takes the journal in its tendrils and consumes it, all its lights strengthening in intensity until Lucretia's quarters are as bright as summer, and for half an instant she prays that Fisher will broadcast this story to the world, to the universe, so that everyone will know they tried. Everyone will know why they came together, that they never meant any harm, that they really did want to keep each other safe. To keep everyone safe.

But Fisher's lights fade to normal, and it hums a pleasant tune, sated on the information in the journal.

"Well," Lucretia says aloud, tears in her eyes, trying to scare away the darkness with her voice. She wishes she hadn't blown out the candles. "Let's get to work."

* * *

 "Davenport!" Lucretia calls.

Davenport knows, sort of, what she wants. It's in the back of his mind. Everything is in the back of his mind, and he can almost grasp it if he concentrates. He has a hard time concentrating. He has a hard time remembering.

"Davenport!" he parrots back. This is his name. He knows that for sure.

It is all he knows.

* * *

 Taako's stagecoach has stopped for the evening in a seedy town. He's finished his last show of the night and is itching to get out. Sazed has been acting weird lately, and what Taako really needs is a drink.

There's only one bar in this town, but it's got a pool table, which means Taako is set to win some money tonight. He grabs a drink and ambles over, just waiting for the challenges to roll in. A young halfling woman is the first to take him up on it. She loses by a country mile.

"Damn!" she says, cheerfully handing over several copper pieces. "Where'd you learn to play like that?"

Taako pauses. "Just naturally good, I guess."

He leaves the bar after just one drink. Where  _did_ he learn to play like that?

He can't remember.

* * *

 Barry searches to the ends of the earth. He comes up with nothing. Lup is gone, Lup can't be gone because she's  _Lup_ , and he's not a religious man but he prays every day that soon will come and Lup will be back.

When he dies, he forgets, and those are the worst parts.

Barry can't stand forgetting.

* * *

 Magnus comes home with a black eye, a bag of parsnips, and a big grin.

Julia kisses him on the cheek. "You've got a story."

"And some parsnips!" Magnus says, dropping the bag on the kitchen table he carved himself. It was an early endeavor, and it still wobbles, but he's never gotten around to fixing it. "Some assholes tried to hustle Orvyn - he's the guy who sells parsnips over at the market - and they were threatening to mess him up. I got between him and them, had a little tussle."

Julia fixes him with a pointed look, one eyebrow raised, trying not to giggle. Magnus sighs, faking dramatic.

"Okay, fine," he says, "a bunch of guys had to pull us off each other. I got 'em pretty good, though. Orvyn insisted on giving me some free parsnips, I tried to tell him no, but he wouldn't give up. So it looks like we're eating parsnips for the next week!"

Letting herself laugh now, Julia scrutinizes Magnus. "You know, you look pretty badass with a black eye."

"Right! I look so cool!" He strikes a pose. "I've been in my fair share of bar fights, and I always look like such a badass afterwards."

"Oh yeah?" Julia teases. "Name me one bar fight you've been in, Mr. Burnsides."

Magnus opens his mouth to describe one that's on the tip of his tongue, where he got between two guys who were...

Who were...

"I, uh... I don't know."

"Gotcha!" Julia grins.

"No," Magnus says, feeling a terrible sense of deja vu in reverse - like he's forgotten this before, and now he's forgetting what he forgot. "I don't know."

* * *

 Lup struggles to remain conscious. She can't feel anything. There is no smell, no sound. She cannot move her limbs or open her mouth. Her vision fades in and out, as though the gauzy black curtains around her blow over her eyes.

She fights. She will not let this keep her blind. She will not be stopped. She's  _Lup_ , she can set the world on fire, this will  _not_ be the end of her. She forces her vision back into focus again, not that it does her much good, but it's something. It's a step.

Lup clings to her memories. If she focuses on them - and she does, when she doesn't have to focus on seeing anymore - they are still vivid.

They keep her going. 

* * *

 It's a rare moment of quiet between Merle and Hekuba. At night, there's nothing left to fight about. They exhaust the list every day.

They sit on the beach, staring out at the dark waves. Mavis and Mookie are asleep. The crashing water seems muffled, like someone has thrown a wool cloak over the entire world. Merle does not love the woman beside him, but he loves the sand beneath his feet and the waves before him and the sky overhead and the kids asleep in the house behind him.

It is a rare moment where he doesn't dream of running away, too.

"Hey," Hekuba says, and Merle makes a face. She has ruined the silence. "I never asked. Where the hell'd you get that?" She extends a finger, pointing to Merle's temple. A hairline scratch that became a scar still stands out from the skin there, a thin white line like thread.

Merle shrugs. "Dunno."

"Don't give me that," Hekuba grumbles. It's Merle's stock retort, and they both know it.

Merle shakes his head, tries for real to remember. Judging by how it scarred over, it must have hurt. It's a weird place to get a cut. Either he did something stupid, or he was in a fight, or maybe both. But he's just making things up, now.

"No, honest," Merle says. "I don't remember."

* * *

 Life goes on.

Fisher floats in its tank, humming contendedly as Johann feeds it another composition.

Lucretia touches her face, feeling lines that weren't there just weeks ago. She isn't used to it yet, the way her face looks, the way her joints ache when she stands up, the way her hands cramp and buckle when she writes for too long. It's that which bothers her most. She's a writer.

_This is only temporary_ , she thinks. She thinks this every day.

She worries if she stops thinking it, she'll forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was a blast to write (the story, not this chapter, this chapter was very sad to write). 
> 
> feel free to hit me up with feedback! this is my first TAZ story and i dig input!


End file.
